Week 9: Space and Art

The final topic of this course examines the link between space and art. As Professor Vesna in her lecture, space and art brings together every topic that we have previously discussed; math, biotechnology, nanotechnology, etc, because they are all applicable in space research.

To begin, we gained some insight on the perspective of the Universe in Charles and Ray Eames Power of Ten video. It gave us insight on how tiny we actually are compared to everything that exists. Eventually, if you go out of our galaxy, you can see that Earth can appear comparable to a tiny speck of dust in the when far away. It's actually quite interesting knowing how much real estate humans actually own in the Universe, and it's quite unimpressive. Yet, it's also interesting how today in astronomy, scientists have only been able to account for about five percent of the matter in the Universe even with the rise of discovering new planets. This phenomenon is based on the hypothesis of dark matter, which is thought to be matter that doesn't react to light, and accounts for all the gravitational effects on visible matter.

One of the most creative moves that scientists have made in astronomy has been relating star locations to real world objects. Star patterns or constellations such as the "Big Dipper" is among one of the most famous. They were given names in order to give the Earth a geographical location in space, navigation, myth, and storytelling. Many artists and scholars have been inspired and created amazing tales based on the stars.

Today, one of the most recognized works with space exploration and phenomenon is the Star Wars franchise. Created by George Lucas, it has become a nationally recognized film series based on science fiction and what he imagined to be the future of humanity and space. Of course, many other movies and shows such as Star Trek, E.T., and Aliens VS Predators have shown us how inspirational looking up at night can be. It's truly jawdropping thinking about how space travel can one day include lightspeed, an idea shown prominently in the Star Wars movies, and it inspires scientists to move forward to these ideas, and the stars.

Even though we have an idea of what is out there in the Universe, we don't have the tools to grasp the complete truth. Today, we have had many advancements in technology which has moved our understanding of space, but we have yet to travel outside our own galaxy and visually capture what lies beyond our own star (the sun). The image above was created with data that we collected on the Andromeda Galaxy.

To end, the advances in the space programs leaves us curious and hopeful for new discoveries in the near distant future, as we bring art and space together to visualize our reality.